Ziraat Bank continued its corporate governance journey going beyond ordinary, introducing many innovations to make its customers’ lives easier.

Focused on creating a corporate culture based on transformation and development with a corporate architecture perspective and expanding it throughout Ziraat Finance Group, the Bank continued to create value with many innovations in 2018, a challenging year for our country.

Ziraat Bank stood by its customers responding to the needs of real sector and households at the right time with accurate solutions throughout the year by accelerating the efforts to construct and expand the banks of Ziraat Finance Group to create more value.

Ziraat Bank carried out various investments which include new projects and ideas that will improve efficiency in its processes and create value for our country’s economy in order to achieve its targets within the frame of 6 key strategic views.

1. Customer-oriented Strong Balance Sheet: While balance sheet of the Bank became more focused on customer and real sector, expense items are being optimized with high technology use and leaner processes in accordance with efficiency principles.

In 2018, Ziraat Bank doubled the amount of its syndication loan to TL 1.4 billion which was extended in 2013 as TL 700 million to achieve its targets of diversifying the funding sources to meet real sector’s needs and increasing its market share in foreign trade financing. The loan was provided with the participation of 44 banks from 22 countries and it has been the highest amounted syndication loan provided by a Turkish bank at a single time.

Ziraat Bank realized a bond issuance of TL 10.7 billion and foreign securities of EUR 92.5 million, USD 10 million and GBP 7 million in 2018.

The Bank aims to diversify investment instruments by securitization of high quality assets in its balance sheet and contribute to savings trend. In this context, the Bank issued covered bonds at the amount of TL 1 billion on 7 December 2018.

In Turkey, the amount of gold which is considered “under the mattress” is anticipated to be 2,200 tons (USD 100 billion) at a minimum. In order to bring these values in to the economy and transform the individual savings into individual gains, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Treasury and Finance issued “Gold Bonds” and “Gold-Based Lease Certificates” through Ziraat Bank.

Accurate solutionsZiraat Bank stood by its customers responding to the needs of real sector and households at the right time with accurate solutions throughout the year.

2. Customer-oriented Business Model: Ziraat Finance Group focuses on establishing sustainable relationships that create value in a service model that aims to ease the lives of its customers.

In 2018, Ziraat Bank designed tailored products and services, renewed its digital channels and improved its service delivery processes to meet its customers’ financial needs with appropriate value propositions.

Ziraat credit card has been reshaped to ease lives and “Bankkart” that combines the features of bank and credit cards was introduced. “Bankkart” with budget-friendly and saving features aims to be everybody’s card and it combines a bank card and a credit card to provide a whole new customer experience.

The world of Bankkart is also focused on easing lives with its digital identity. All its features can be used at digital channels such as “Bankkart Mobile” application, “Member Merchant Platform”, “www.bankkart.com.tr” and “www.bankkartpos.com.tr”

Ziraat Bank renewed its mobile banking and internet banking processes to facilitate customers’ digital channel experiences and provide faster and innovative solutions at various transaction sets.

Efforts which aim to diversify digital channels offered to customers continued in 2018. Activities have started for “Immediate Retail Credit Module “which will provide time savings for customers and increase the speed of credit application processes and improvements to enable control and approval of individual credit applications to be realized through internet/mobile channels.

With the objective of offering a bank card experience, which combines the features of a bank card and a credit card, to its corporate/ entrepreneurial customers the Bank also works on Corporate Card with an infrastructure to allow providing customized solutions to companies and sector-specific financial solutions.

Young Farmer Academy program was designed in cooperation with Ankara University Faculty of Agriculture to increase young population’s interest on agriculture, teach them agricultural production and investment in specific areas, raise young farmers with education and awareness and promote entrepreneurial awareness in agriculture. The objective of the program is to meet our country’s need for high quality investment, production and intermediate level staff.

The program started operating in Ankara, Adana, Şanlıurfa and Bursa in 2018 and will improve with new production topics and in more cities in 2019.

Integration of enterprise control process with TARSİM which is carried out by Ziraat branches for agricultural enterprises planned to be visited has been completed. In this context, control processes for agricultural enterprises are being performed by TARSİM experts.

Ziraat Bank collaborated with Halkbank, Vakıfbank, Ziraat Participation and Vakıf Participation Bank for the “Free of Charge Joint ATM Usage Project” to increase accessibility to financial services and contribute to foreign trade balance of our country by decreasing the import of ATM machines in the medium and long term. In this context, basic banking transactions such as cash withdrawal and deposit, balance inquiry, credit card balance and limit inquiry and credit card payments can be done free of charge in similar locations at 15 thousand joint ATMs based on efficiency principle.

In cooperation with real estate/construction industry which is the leading sector of our economy, the Bank started to provide low interest financial support to respond to the needs of real estate credit customers and retail customers in 2018.

BankkartZiraat credit card has been reshaped to ease lives and “Bankkart” that combines the features of bank and credit cards was introduced.

3. Process Perfection: Ziraat Bank continues to improve its processes in order to bring ease to lives of its customers and employees, and to generate value through its productivity oriented business model.

In 2018, with improved finance technologies Ziraat Bank continued to develop efficiency and quality-oriented business processes and realized investments in this area.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) was launched in 2018 to direct employees to higher value added business processes and carry on simple routine processes with low costs. As a result of the automation adopted with 4 processes at the Bank and 2 processes at the insurance company, significant efficiencies were realized. In 2019, 20 more processes are planned to be included in the automation process.

Within the activities carried out to centralize Ziraat Finance Group’s operations, the robotic process will be expanded to foreign branches and subsidiaries and an integrated structure will be built in operational transactions.

Ziraat Bank business model is being continuously improved by technology intensive processes. Significant investments were realized in 2018.

Efforts continue at Ziraat Bank branches for centralization of operational transactions to make more time for customers.

The following actions were taken in this context:

• Mortgage establishment and registration processes which have been carried out by the branches were centralized for corporate customers in 2017 with e-mortgage application which was a first in the industry. The same application was adopted for retail customers’ mortgage establishment and registration processes and started as a pilot in 2018.
• Activities to centralize the evaluation of requests regarding foreclosures from execution/collection authorities rather than processing them in branches were completed.
• To better manage the busy KYK (Credit and Dormitories Institution) transactions in branches, card/product applications are received through e-state platform that is integrated with KYK system and cards or products applied are being delivered to the students’ addresses. In addition to that, cards can be given to students quickly at the branch for those who applied for scholarship or education credits with approvals received in electronic format.

A new business model was developed which allows branches to work with the Operation Center to conduct central operation processes at optimum costs. “Operation Center Everywhere Project” enables the less busy branches to pull out transactions from the central operation pool based on the financial calendar.

Activities for the Virtual Assistant application which is supported by artificial intelligence and which will be used for the solution of in-house problems have started. Virtual Assistant, “Bilge” (Wise person) will start to provide solutions for problems forwarded by the employees in 2019.

4. Modern Infrastructure Systems: Ziraat Bank is continuing its investments in modern infrastructure to make its processes more technology intensive

Ziraat Bank business model is being continuously improved by technology intensive processes. Significant investments were realized in 2018.

Within the scope of banking software transformation project which started in 2016, technology transformation was realized by the completion of mid-tier and REST transformation phases. In 2019, front end transformation will be done and transformation of the banking software will be completed.

Renewal of ATM software and hardware infrastructure which started in 2018 is planned to be completed in 2019. CRM supported ATM software will enable faster and customized service delivery to customers. With the new established platform the aim is to reduce vendor dependency.

In terms of information security and system security, investments were completed for end-to-end control and prevention of advanced new generation malware, establishment of network threat monitoring systems and central infrastructure for cyber security. Activities to detect all threats and take actions within pre-determined processes and process improvements through continuous analyses were the focal areas of 2018.

Central platform activities started for automatic feed of system authorizations based on employees’ duties and authorities in order to keep security of data and applications at maximum level. In this context, digital identities will be set up for all applications to establish effective authorization management in 2019.

After the completion of the Enterprise Architecture Governance Project in 2017, architectural review processes were adopted in 2018.

After the completion of the Enterprise Architecture Governance Project in 2017, architectural review processes were adopted in 2018. Scoring application has started which includes strategy and business architecture criteria to prioritize IT requests in accordance with business strategy and business capabilities. Enterprise architecture approach was integrated into establishing strategic road maps, organizational changes, request and project execution processes.

Studies for integration of enterprise architecture processes into business manners of Ziraat Finance Group banks and financial institutions will continue in 2019.

5. A Developing Organization: We continue to evolve and develop all together.

Ziraat Bank keeps developing cultural transformation practices to integrate change into corporate ways of doing business and to create more agile teams. One of the most significant examples of this is Headquarters Performance System. The pilot system was launched in 2018 and aims to encourage units to come up with innovative ideas and deliver high quality and facilitating services to internal customers. The target is to develop and expand the system throughout all units at the Headquarters in 2019.

Focusing on internal customer, Ziraat Bank conducts Internal Customer Satisfaction Survey to improve business processes and reinforce in-house communication. The feedback from the survey is used as an input for individual performance evaluations of Headquarters staff.

With out-of-the-box projects which ease lives Ziraat Bank continued to contribute to development of the industry in 2018. In this context, the Bank registered its success with national and international awards as in the prior years and increased its brand value.

Brand valueZiraat Bank has been selected as the bank which increased its brand value most, as in the prior year, as a result of “World’s Most Valuable 500 Bank Brands-2018” survey which was conducted by Brand Finance.

Ziraat Bank has been selected as the bank which increased its brand value most, as in the prior year, as a result of “World’s Most Valuable 500 Bank Brands-2018” survey which was conducted by Brand Finance, an independent brand valuation and strategy consulting firm. Ziraat Bank increased the brand value by USD 120 million, from USD 1,312 million to USD 1,432 million and with this increase the Bank moved up 5 levels in ranking and brand score was raised from AA- to AA+.

Ziraat Bank ranked as the most effective bank in social media in 2018, as in the prior year, in Data Analytics awards for banks category at Social Media Awards Turkey 2018, which is an organization that rewards brands, agencies, projects and people who are successful in social media.

As a financial institution with the highest number of followers, Ziraat Bank feeds its social media with the content from its employees without receiving any service from outside. In addition to that, the Bank organized a photography exhibition at Ankara Kuğulu Art Gallery with the title “#TurkeyFromtheEyesofOurEmployees” to display the photographs taken by its employees’ all around Turkey.

Ziraat Bank is aware of the fact that “Being More” is achieved through taking place at hearts. Through activities conducted with this awareness, the Bank has been selected as Turkey’s most loved bank at “Turkey’s Lovemarks” survey in 2018, just like in 2016 and 2017.

Ziraat Bank is aware of the fact that “Being More” is achieved through taking place at hearts. Through activities conducted with this awareness, the Bank has been selected as Turkey’s most loved bank at “Turkey’s Lovemarks” survey in 2018, just like in 2016 and 2017.

Ziraat Volleyball Team which represented our country in Balkan Cup organized in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria won against SCV Hebar team of Bulgaria and became Balkan Cup Champion.

Social mediaZiraat Bank ranked as the most effective bank in social media in 2018, as in the prior year, in Data Analytics awards for banks category at Social Media Awards Turkey 2018.

Ziraat Bank, with more than 2,500 artworks in its collection, displayed hundreds of these artworks which have a significant place in our country’s cultural heritage through “Light and Colors Digital Exhibition” in 2018. One of the exhibition areas, Ziraat Kubbe was visited by the President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the artworks were displayed with a multi-projection technology with 5K resolution which was being used for the first time in Turkey.

6. Ziraat Finance Group: In order to meet the financial needs of Ziraat customers as a whole, we continue to generate integrated solutions with our subsidiaries, our branches abroad and our financial companies.

Studies are underway to build the “Ziraat Finance Group” in order to provide integrated financial solutions to customers receiving services from the Ziraat brand and to design business processes in line with the common objectives of the Group.

Studies are underway to build the “Ziraat Finance Group” in order to provide integrated financial solutions to customers receiving services from the Ziraat brand and to design business processes in line with the common objectives of the Group. In this context, the centralization of operations with all partner companies and activities on integrated product designs continued in 2018.

In order to attract companies with potential to contribute to decreasing current deficit to Ziraat customer portfolio and to create value for our country’s economy, Ziraat Girişim Sermayesi Yatırım Ortaklığı A.Ş. (Ziraat Venture Capital Investment Trust) was founded in 2018 which aims to make venture capital investments in companies which design technological products, have a potential to create value and at the same time with a potential of increased value through capital contribution and management support.

Carrying on technology investments in all subsidiaries and foreign branches Ziraat Finance Group uses local solutions provided by a technology consulting firm to update banking software of its banks and foreign branches.

In 2018, Ziraat Bank started projects to share its domestic experience with the Group, set up joint systems to contribute to the development of banking industry in the countries they operate and expand payment systems and processes throughout Ziraat Finance Group.

Studies to conduct information systems and process audits on a web-based integrated system in Ziraat Finance Group were carried on in 2018. Web-based audit modules of ZiraatBank BH d.d. and Ziraat Participation Bank is planned to be completed in 2019.

Ziraat GSYOZiraat GSYO (Ziraat Venture Capital Investment Trust) was founded in 2018.

Ziraat Bank’s equity share in its affiliate bank in Uzbekistan was increased to 100% and the bank started its operations as Ziraat Bank Uzbekistan as of 1 January 2018.

In accordance with the New Economic Program, processes were initiated to merge public banks with portfolio management companies. The process of acquisition of Halk Portfolio Management and Vakıf Portfolio Management and merging them under the umbrella of Ziraat Portföy will be completed by the end of January 2019.

Although there are many international and national rating agencies in the global economy, a few dominant agencies create an oligopoly in the market. The decision was taken to be a partner in the National Rating Agency which will be established to reduce the dependency on international rating companies, develop capital markets, use credit ratings for corporate portfolios and provide for effective risk weighting.